The peaks of valleys of Scott County\u2019s softball season have been the type to turn on a dime, and a battle with Bryan Station for the regular season title and top seed in the 42nd District was no exception.<\/p>\n
Five Cardinal errors and two solo gongs by Defenders\u2019 seventh grader Mia Urbaneja could have triggered the here-we-go-again thinking.<\/p>\n
Instead, a three-run blast by freshman pitcher Makenzie Leidecker, a highlight-film diving catch from Makiah Jackson, and some cat burglar base running courtesy of Aubrey Wigginton joined forces to save the day.<\/p>\n
The come-from-behind, 5-4 win Tuesday evening at Cardinal Park completed SC\u2019s stressful sweep of Bryan Station and sealed preferred placement in next week\u2019s district playoff bracket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that both Station and (Frederick) Douglass, are very competitive, very aggressive teams,\u201d senior center fielder Jackson said. \u201cGetting that one spot and getting more comfortable just allows us more wiggle room.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. 1 Scott County hosts the tournament and draws No. 4 Henry Clay in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Monday. Station and Douglass collide Tuesday, with the loser eliminated from 11th Region contention. The championship game is set for Wednesday.<\/p>\n
SC (16-10, 5-1) needed eight innings to win at Bryan Station (11-13, 3-3) in a 1-0, eight-inning thriller back on March 31. The rematch wasn’t as clean and packed many more dizzying momentum swings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew if we put the pressure on ourselves tonight, it would be much easier when we\u2019re in the district,\u201d senior third base Wigginton said. \u201cWe\u2019re back on a good high right now, knowing we\u2019ve got that win in the bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urbaneja\u2019s first home run and an RBI bunt single by Adalyn Faulconer put the Cards in a 2-0 hole until the bottom of the fifth.<\/p>\n
Bryan Station senior Karsyn Rockvoan, who struck out 21 in the first meeting, rang up another 14 Cardinals in round two. SC took advantage of eight walks this time, however, including back-to-back passes for Wigginton and Jackson to ignite the go-ahead rally.<\/p>\n
Leidecker took a pitch out of the strike zone with two out before clobbering the next one over the center field fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just \u2018see ball, hit ball.\u2019 I\u2019m not going down,\u201d Leidecker said. \u201cIt helps me improve my mentality (going back out to pitch) knowing that we\u2019re up and that we have something to put more faith in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The home run was the second of the season for Leidecker, who entered the game batting .366, at the heart of a Cardinals’ lineup that has gone deep 20 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t say she\u2019s struggled lately, because she\u2019s still hitting pretty well stat-wise, but she\u2019s struggled for her, how she was feeling,\u201d SC coach Mike Wagoner said.<\/p>\n
Clearing the bases didn\u2019t silence the rally, either. Skylar Mathies walked, took second and third by virtue of wild pitches, and scored on Kennedy Townsend\u2019s smash into left.<\/p>\n
Three consecutive errors gave Bryan Station back one of those runs in the sixth, and the tying run was aboard when Adriann Acure floated a ball into what was seemingly a Bermuda triangle between shortstop, left and center field.<\/p>\n
Enter Jackson, a brace protecting her balky right shoulder, uniform customarily covered in dirt from her exploits on the base paths.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She dove belly-first and gloved the ball about a foot from the ground to protect the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a good team. They\u2019re going to get base hits. They\u2019re going to get on base. They\u2019re going to take advantage of that,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cKnowing at that time there were two outs, I\u2019m going to put my body on the line for that. I trust my abilities, and I would hope the rest of the defense would back me up the same way. You go or you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
One spectator with a unique vantage point believed Jackson\u2019s gem was in the bag the whole time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI already knew she was going to get it,\u201d Leidecker said. \u201cI just knew that ESPN play was going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the sixth, Wigginton walked again and stole second. She was still there when Rockvoan whiffed Jackson for the second out.<\/p>\n
As the Defenders threw the ball back toward their pitcher, and the middle infielders converged for a pep talk, Wigginton made a delayed break for third.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about how second base and the shortstop weren\u2019t paying attention at all,\u201d Wigginton said. \u201cThey were walking up to the pitcher after she had walked or struck anyone out. They were not putting in a lot of effort covering where they were supposed to be, so we took advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryan Station rushed the throw, which sailed to the fence on the left field side of the Scott County dugout. Wigginton bounced up and trotted home with ease.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been coaching Wig, Kiah and some of those girls long enough where we can just look at each other. I make a motion, and she knows what I\u2019m talking about,\u201d Wagoner said. \u201cThat one I can\u2019t take credit for, that run from second base. That was all Dwayne (Wells, first base coach). We were communicating solidly. To make them throw it away and get that gimme run there, that was huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wigginton’s run was magnified by Urbaneja\u2019s encore blast on the second pitch in the top of the seventh, and even more so after another infield error.<\/p>\n
Leidecker logged her sixth strikeout of the night at the next hitter\u2019s expense. She then coaxed a pop-up from Aniyah Farris to Gracie Strong, who cradled it and stepped on first base for an unassisted double play and the clincher.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe hasn\u2019t pitched a whole lot lately,\u201d Wagoner said of Leidecker, who went the distance in the previous shutout of Bryan Station. \u201dWe\u2019ve been kind of giving her a little bit of a break. She came out tonight and did a fantastic job. She left a couple over (the plate), I think, but it happens. Yeah, great game out of her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Townsend (2-for-2, walk) and Leidecker had the only hits off Rockvoan. Leidecker scattered four singles aside from the pair of Bryan Station bombs.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals, who entered the showdown having lost five off their past seven games, gave their 11th Region title defense an obvious shot in the arm.<\/p>\n
SC routed Henry Clay, 13-5 and 15-0, in their two prior meetings this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some up-and-down play. We\u2019ve had some downs here lately over the weekend. We played some bad ball,\u201d Wagoner said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how we would respond today. We didn\u2019t see any fast pitching last week at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The peaks of valleys of Scott County\u2019s softball season have been the type to turn on a dime,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2323,2314,2317,2313,2325,3648,2333,2335,2334,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2307,2320,185,2324,2512,2338,2311,2312,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-699765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-baseball-competitions","12":"tag-baseball-events","13":"tag-baseball-finals","14":"tag-baseball-games","15":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","16":"tag-baseball-teams","17":"tag-first-baseman","18":"tag-grass-field-surfaces","19":"tag-home-run","20":"tag-lawn-games","21":"tag-major-league-baseball","22":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","24":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","25":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","26":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","27":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","28":"tag-mlb","29":"tag-mlb-playoffs","30":"tag-mlb-postseason","31":"tag-outdoor-sports","32":"tag-pitcher","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-sports-events","35":"tag-strike-zone","36":"tag-team-activities","37":"tag-team-sports","38":"tag-turf-sports","39":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}